Wedding Crasher Famous, Not Rich : Media: Parachutist who dropped in on Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding got no pictures due to technical glitch. He sold his story but says he’s barely ahead of expenses and may face fine.

Scott Kyle Harris, the parachutist who became perhaps the most unwelcome guest at Elizabeth Taylor’s lavish wedding last month when he literally dropped in, is not up in the air with joy these days.

Harris, 34, of Sun Valley--a commercial photographer with 16 years sky-diving experience--hoped that the photos he could take with a video camera attached to his helmet would bring him minor fame and major money.

He got the fame, thanks to news film footage of dozens of security agents and Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies swarming to arrest him when he landed near the wedding tent on singer Michael Jackson’s ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.

But Harris’ plans to get rich from the escapade have apparently fallen through.

Because of a technical glitch, he got no pictures. He made a few bucks--he won’t say how much--selling “the exclusive rights” of his story to “Inside Edition,” a tabloid TV news program, and to the National Enquirer. But that was barely enough to cover “thousands of dollars” in expenses, he said.

And money was the main motivation behind his stunt.

“I want to make one thing real clear--I am not a fruitcake,” he said emphatically. “I’m a commercial photographer. I’m not a particularly big fan of Liz Taylor’s. . . I was just amazed at how much money was being offered by the tabloids for a shot. They were offering in excess of six figures.

“For that kind of money, I’ll do anything, as long as it’s reasonably safe and reasonably legal.”

His finances for the stunt may even drop into the red. He is scheduled to appear in Santa Barbara Municipal Court Monday on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Harris said he decided to crash the wedding after friends “in the media” contacted him two days before the event.

He was prepared. His sky-diving helmet was already equipped with a video camera and a still camera for free-fall photography.

“It was a real puzzle how to go about it, because I knew I would not be able to walk away with the film,” he said.

Harris rented broadcast equipment to beam images from his helmet TV camera to a receiver on a nearby hillside. He planned to take still pictures from the recording when he was released. But the recorder didn’t work.

Harris and his pilot took off from Santa Ynez Airport about 5 p.m. “The wedding was supposed to start at 5, so that’s when we took off, figuring it would be almost over by the time I jumped. I just wanted to get a picture, when the ceremony was over, of Liz and Larry walking back down the aisle, with all the guests in the background.”

Harris decided to jump around 6:30 p.m. Diving through the circle of hovering helicopters, he circled over the Jackson estate and tried to videotape the grounds and the wedding tent. He landed about 20 feet from the podium as the couple spoke their vows.

“Just as soon as my feet touched, I was hit from behind and front” by guards, he said. “I couldn’t see any of the guests or the wedding party.”

Harris was questioned for three hours, escorted to the gate and released.

Harris said he has no plans to drop in on another high-security wedding. But he added, “If someone came up to me with a couple thousand dollars and said, ‘Scott,’ well . . .”